 I wish to introduce the Minister of State of the Department of Education, Mary Mitchell O'Connor, TD. She is a TD in Dunleary. She had previously been Minister for Jobs and oversaw a huge expansion in employment in Ireland to a great credit. Without further ado, I'll hand over to the Minister. Thank you. Barry, thank you very much. I had the pleasure of sharing a constituency with Barry in the past. Barry, please stay in this job and don't come back to Dunleary if I can ask you for one favour. Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted that I've been given this opportunity to address you on the critical issue of the future funding of our higher education system. I would like to acknowledge the contribution of today's speakers to higher education provision and reform, and I greatly welcome this forum which has engaged political and public perspectives on future funding approaches for the sector. Before I continue, I would like to remind us all of the most important person in the room, and that is the student. That's why we're all here. That is why we are fundamentally here discussing today the future of our higher education. The student is always top of my agenda. Their education, their welfare, their in-class experience constitutes everything that I consider when making any decisions within my portfolio of higher education. I want our education system to be accessible to students who want to attend a higher education institution, the socio-economically disadvantaged student, the student with a disability, the mature student, all accommodated and welcomed. I want our institutions to instill a love of lifelong learning in everyone who passes through its doors. We are here, all of us, both policy makers and professionals at the cold face aware of the challenges facing the higher education sector currently. However, the development of talent through higher education is a central part of our plan as a government to support a strong economy and to deliver a fair society. Each of the contributions and the broader discussions confirms the importance and the value of bringing together a diverse group of deeply experienced expert speakers. Each of the panel has communicated key insights in how we might work to put in place a long term sustainable model for higher education funding. I particularly value the contributions made today which identify both the challenges and the opportunities involved in doing so. We know to our cost that any significant and complex public policy issue, particularly one requiring increased investment cannot be addressed with a simple or a straightforward solution. The hard lesson we as a nation learned from the unsustainable boom in advance of the economic and fiscal bust from 2008 onwards is that increased resources alone are never the solution to securing world class public services. The case for increased investment in any sector for any purpose must be built up step by step in a strong evidence based way. It must demonstrate clearly at every point in the process the positive outcomes to be achieved and why they are worth pursuing or indeed essential to achieve. As far as investment in higher education is concerned this is the work commenced under the Peter Castle's wise stewardship culminating in the publication of the expert's group's report on future funding. In 2016 the castle's report and I see Peter here clearly outlined the funding challenges facing the higher education sector in light of projected demographic increases with student numbers expected to be almost 30% higher and the impact of the economic downturn. The report was clear in its conclusion that our current funding model is not sustainable. It called for the development of a clear funding strategy for the sector, a funding model that will deliver a robust and a steady base of funding to sustain the system into the future. My department and I have been working tirelessly since to achieve the goal of making progress on building the future funding model for higher education. It's important to be clear that this new model is already under construction. The reduction of approximately 20% in higher education expenditure during the crisis years from 2008 to 2014 has been followed by a cumulative 9% increase from 2014 to 2018. Now I wish to move on to the cornerstone topic of today's event and that is the increased funding for higher education. As I have indicated the government has already commenced a significant programme of investment in higher education. In total we have invested 100 million euro more in core and current funding in higher education since the CASEL's report was published. This additional funding has allowed for targeted initiatives in higher education including the technological university development, skills programmes, performance and innovation funding as part of the reform of the funding model, promoting access to higher education and a new apprenticeship funding stream. This funding or this extra funding will also allow for places to be provided for 2,100 additional full time students in 2018. As your minister at the cabinet table, I am your voice for higher education in the upcoming budget negotiations and I will be that voice ensuring that additional funding for the higher education comes on stream. But that work has begun in earnest. We are listening to employers, industry and higher education institutions. My department and that of minister Pascal Dunhoo are working to reform the national training fund in response to those issues raised by employers and indeed educational providers in last year's consultation process. The fund levy was increased by 0.1% to 0.8% in budget 2018 and it will be increased by a further 0.1% in both 2019 and another 0.1% in 2020. In return the national training fund will be more closely aligned to and responsive to the needs of the economy and the employers. Employers are contributors but they are also as was said earlier here recipients of a skilled pipeline of graduates. The NTF will allow for an additional expenditure of 47.5 million this year as part of the Exchequer Employer funding mechanism bringing the fund from 435 million in 2017 to 553 million in 2018. It is estimated that this fund will increase by a further 104 million in 2019 and 165 million in 2020. Our aim is to make the national training fund more transparent to better align it to employers needs and to develop a range of upskilling and reskilling initiatives which will respond to employers and to regional and national skills needs. With regards to apprenticeships the action plan to expand apprenticeship and traineeship will see 31,000 new enrolments on apprenticeship programmes representing more than doubling of the activity by 2020. Some of the new apprenticeship programmes including international finance, aircraft maintenance, commie chef and in 2019 we're going to roll out retail practice. Delegates as the title of the castles report clearly captures we are investing in the national ambition. It is important that we use the report as a springboard and expand our exploration on how we fund this essential sector and that is our higher education sector. And whilst I acknowledge the role of the castles report in identifying the need for capital investment in higher education I would like to reiterate some of the central teams of the expert groups report other than relating to funding. Teams which Peter has also referenced in his contribution here today and indeed consistently since the report was first published and that is the team of reform. Reform and the opportunities that reform point to that provides the bedrock for the investment case in higher education in the coming years. To be very clear the expert groups report stresses the case for investment in a reformed system of higher education. The report could not be clearer. Reform, innovation and change is essential to creating a virtuous circle of investment quality and verification. It seeks a higher education system which achieves significantly greater access participation and progression among all socio economic groups. It seeks a higher education system which builds the knowledge and capabilities of our graduates to meet the changing needs of business, the economy and our society. It seeks a higher education system with an enhanced focus on improving the quality of programs of engagement with students and of learning outcomes. It seeks a higher education system which is more responsive and flexible to the changing needs of learners across their lives and it seeks a higher education system that recognizes the need to work alongside the further education sector to reconfigure the post secondary school landscape. In my role as Minister for Higher Education and having visited all the country's HGI campuses I have seen best practice exemplars for all of these objectives and it is essential that we retain a sharp focus on the broad and the deep range of actions and initiatives that taken together will drive the higher education system forward to the achievement of the ambitious goals set out for it in the expert group report. This is a prerequisite of making continued progress on building the future funding model. Ladies and gentlemen, let me stress that in the environment of intense competition between competing sectors of the economy there will always be a level of fiscal resources falling well short of demands and with this within this difficult environment the higher education sector must make the strongest possible case for future investment meeting the ambition of the expert groups objectives. Since all sectors of society suffered hugely from the impact of the financial crisis no sector can expect to be successful in making the case for increased investment simply and exclusively on the basis of the reversal of previous funding reductions. The higher education sector has certainly demonstrated through the period of retrenchment its capacity to deliver significant productivity and efficiency games and at this juncture I want to publicly acknowledge the work and the dedication of all of the staff of our higher education institutions who unquestionably put their shoulder to the wheel in the challenging recessional times but the HE sector must now demonstrate in any era of increased investment how it will continue to deliver similar benefits in order to reach the high level of ambition set for it in the first instance in the expert groups report. The government and the department of education and the skills ambition for HE are reflected strongly in the action plan for education's objective to provide the best education and training system in Ireland over the next decade. Later this month minister Dunhu will be publishing the summer economic statement it will set out the fiscal parameters for budget 2019 it will identify the scope for expenditure increases consistent with the broader requirements of ensuring that the economy remains on a sustainable trajectory it will meet government priorities not only in education but in key strategic areas like housing social protection and health so let me be very clear the strength of the case made for spending in one department or one sector can never be assessed in its own terms it must and it will be set out against the cases made in all other areas within the framework of what can be accommodated within the overall budgetary fiscal space budgetary considerations will be consistent with what is considered appropriate given overall macroeconomic conditions and the risks facing our economy so let us remind ourselves that the recent fiscal assessment report published by the irish fiscal advisory council highlights that notwithstanding the very strong performance of the economy and the prudent approach that the government has adopted to spending and taxation Ireland's debt levels remain high and given the risks that the council identify from sources such as brexit such as a shift in international trade policy and such as a shift or a steep fall in Ireland's corporation tax regime we must prioritise the requirement to manage overall fiscal policy in a manner consistent with and continued and sustained reductions in our debt this approach is the best insurance policy against finding ourselves again in a situation where unexpected economic and fiscal developments lead to sharp unplanned reductions in spending in light of the impact on the higher education sector during the period of severe fiscal consolidation from 2008 to 2014 this is certainly an experience that we won't and can't let happen again with regard to capital expenditure we as a government are responding to the substantial need identified in the expert group report government recognises the pivotal role of the higher education sector to the realisation of key objectives of project Ireland 2040 in light of this the national development plan project 2040 allocated 2.2 billion euro in additional exchequer funding to support infrastructure priorities in the higher education sector i have recently written to the higher education institutions to highlight the importance of them working collaboratively with regional business and enterprise partners in order that the higher education sector will be able to draw down and benefit from the very substantial funds amounting to four billion the level of planned investment of 2.2 billion demonstrates the high level of the government's commitment to the development and to the growth of the higher education sector and to meeting the significant demographic growth in the next decade as a government we have responded very positively in increasing capital investment capital investment in higher education is certainly not a case of jam tomorrow the government has already initiated a significant public private partnership programme for the institutes of technology sector i recently announced key progress on the appointment of design teams for the government's public private partnership programme for the higher education sector a capital envelope of 200 million euro was provided in the 2016 to 2021 capital plan for this programme this ppp programme is being rolled out alongside 367 million in funding from the department of education and skills for investment in education over the period 2018 to 2021 eight of the 11 projects in the ppp capital programme are in the institutes of technology that are currently part of the technological university consortia in this regard the establishment and the development of t us is expected to play a crucial role in driving regional growth and developing under project Ireland 2040 thanks thank you so ladies and gentlemen i now want to address university rankings the press coverage attributed the entire fall in rankings for irish universities to the funding challenges notwithstanding that the results again reflected a strong performance overall by Ireland's higher education system as everyone here knows we do have to be cautious in how we interpret the results in light of the significant issues in terms of how the rankings are compiled in the case of the recent qs rankings let us understand that these league tables don't consider the quality of teaching and learning in our university lecture halls or in our higher education institute lecture halls these league tables don't consider how universities support access or tackle educational disadvantage a key national objective these league table tables rely on global surveys of academics and employers who may have had no interaction with the institution in question these league tables measure the impact of research by the number of times the paper is cited and doesn't and don't consider the quality of the journal in which the research appears and of course notwithstanding all of these weaknesses there is no avoiding the fact that rankings can impact both positively and negatively on international perceptions of our national university system for this reason i believe it is important that working together with the university sector that we develop a deeper understanding of the key drivers of Ireland's own higher education offering we need to be able to explain better the factors driving performance highlighting where we believe that there could be improvements indeed we must also seek to ensure that we do not miss opportunities through appropriate actions to improve our standing we currently set our own goals and objectives and we benchmark ourselves against against best international practice within the systems performance framework the second of which will be published soon at all times we must ensure that we avoid the risk where some other countries or universities may have been tempted of taking measures not for their own benefit or value but simply to try to gain the ranking system so finally ladies and gentlemen and in conclusion while this is a very exciting time for the sector and for higher education as a whole and whilst i'm very optimistic for the sector i do realise that reform is key the comprehensive and holistic approach taken at today's conference examining current and capital higher education funding and reform will contribute to the development of a long term sustainable funding model for the sector i look forward to working closely with the higher education sector and deepening collaborative approaches thus providing a quality higher education product for our students for our businesses for our society and indeed for our nation. Thank you very much minister and it just leaves it for me to by way of conclusion to thank a few people the institute was very anxious to bring up this issue it's been raised by our corporate members by our academic members by our civil society members constantly the institute method is to bring together disparate voices to allow those voices to be heard to tackle intractable and thorny issues in a very respectful and robust way based on logic and reasoning i think we've heard a lot of that today on this very very important issue i want to thank peter castles for all of his work previously and in preparing for today he presented the context very clearly in terms of the staff student ratios in terms of the capital requirements and all of the other demographic context that we're all very concerned about to thank all the panelists who contributed so actively today and i think there's one emerging issue that comes out i mean all of the underlying assumptions seem to be agreed in terms of financing in terms of numbers in terms of the demographic bubble that we're about to encounter but it seems to emerge this question of political will this question of whether or not there is a political appetite in the current political context to tackle the very difficult issues so we're delighted to have the minister here to conclude and we wish her well in her work at the cabinet table in the coming budgetary framework and it the minister asked me to promise that i wouldn't come back to politics and don liri i she was too polite to point out that she took my seat and so i promise i won't come back although that's a political promise but it might be it might be worth saying that all of us politicians previous and current know that we know what the right thing to do is sometimes you just don't know how to get reelected when we've done it so in that with those words may i also thank the higher education authority for their generous sponsorship and support for today to graham and all of his team for making today i think a very useful exchange of views thank you very much for attendance